Birds, Bikes, & Bands

Friday, 13 days after it hatched, one of our hummingbird chicks left the nest. I think I saw it go … as I walked underneath the nest that afternoon I saw something fly away out of the corner of my eye. I thought at first it was the mother, but when I looked up at the nest only […]

Weekend Photoblogging

Hummingbird update: here they are this morning, eight days old: Their beaks are beginning to elongate, and they’re definitely plumping up, judging by how crowded the nest has become. We never see mama bird feeding the chicks, but she’s obviously hard at it when we’re not watching. And the patio floor is covered with her droppings […]

Monday Bag o’ Chicks

I thought it would take longer, but the hummingbird chicks are already out of their eggs. The photos are dated, so it’s easy to count the days. Mama bird laid her first egg on the 6th of April. She laid the second one a day later. Yesterday, the 27th of April, there were two chicks in the nest, […]

Thursday Bag o’ Apple

I finally have an iPhone. My life is now complete: except for Donna’s old Dell desktop (which I never use), every other wirelessly-connected electronic device in the house bears the silhouette of an apple. To some of you, Apple’s trademark may as well be the Mark of the Beast. I’ve been accused of knuckling under to conformity, […]

Air-Minded: PASM Photoblog I

It’s time I posted more photos from the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona. As a volunteer tour guide, I’m sometimes able to visit parts of the museum visitors don’t get to see. There’s always something interesting hidden away. These two Japanese Kamikaze planes, for example. Until recently only the fuselages have been visible, […]

Sunday Bag o’ Birds

Five years ago I photoblogged the birth of two hummingbirds. The mother had built her nest on a storage hook hanging from a support beam underneath our patio overhang. Donna and I would watch her through the sliding screen door to the patio, then dash out to check on her eggs whenever she flew off. […]

Mini-Gypsy Tour 1/2014 Photoblog

If I can afford it, there’ll be another motorcycle tour this year, hence the “1” in the title. Mini-Gypsy Tour 2/2014 will involve either Sturgis or Four Corners; haven’t decided yet. The first tour of 2014 was a more modest affair, a six-day round-robin from Tucson to Flagstaff, Las Vegas, Zion National Park, and back. […]

Air-Minded: a Shooting Star Photoblog

The American military’s T-Birds are all long retired, but many countries around the world still fly them. They may not be glamorous or fast, but they played an important role in the early jet age, and I write this post in tribute.